Thursday, 26 March 2009

Law Society attacks estate agents - bring on the bankers

War is declared! A war to rise from the depths of the public mind. And it promises to be a bloody fight.

Self proclaimed defenders of the ordinary man (Solicitors) have struck against the villainous scourge which is the estate agent market.

Solicitors have moved quickly (in legal terms!) to draw first blood and protect the ordinary man, claiming in the Times (bastion of the legal fraternity) that '... taken with stamp duty, estate agents’ fees account for the lion’s share of the costs of a house sale — dwarfing solicitors' fees from the same transaction...' The President of the Law Society no less (NB to Mr Bolton King - you need a title such as President) goes on to say "... after years of a bull run, their earnings have been quite disproportionate to the cost of everything else in society, whether a loaf of bread, cars or holiday..."

This is sterling stuff and has prompted outrage from the estate agent community. Well, a few bitchy comments on the EAT and a letter to the Times.

I would expect to see bankers come out next to really lay the boot in and blame estate agents for the world economic meltdown.

1 comment:

I think this has always been an issue as they have always had higher fees than solicitors with estate agents working theirs out on a % of the property cost and solicitors basing theirs on hours to potentially complete a job. I am not sure the Law Society can win this as solicitors cannot reasonably raise their fee and estate agents aren't going to reduce theirs. Highlighting the situation may help in the long term for sellers.